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The History of the Mine and West Canadian Colleries
In 1901 Jules Fleutot and C. Remy of British Columbia
Gold Fields Limited came to the Crowsnest Pass to prospect for coal. Rich
coal deposits were found at the present site of Bellevue and on April 2,
1903, West Canadian Collieries Limited was incorporated. The company
purchased 20,000 acres of land that encompassed Lille to the north,
Blairmore to the west and Byron Creek to the south. Under the direction of
Mr. Fleutot, active development on the Bellevue Mine began in 1903, and by
December 2nd of that year, the mine loaded its first C.P.R. box car.
By 1905 development of the mine and town were well under way. There were
over 150 men on the mine's payroll and worker's housing, stores and a hotel
were added to Bellevue to accommodate the steadily increasing workforce.
Of the 13 million tons of coal extracted from the mine, about 90% was sold
to the C.P.R. for its steam engines, making it the mine's number one
customer. The influence of the C.P.R., both direct and indirect, was very
strong and was felt right up to the day the mine closed.
The major tragedy the mine encountered was the 1910 explosion. There were
actually two explosions during the year, but it was the second, on
December 9th that proved to be deadly. In all, 31 men were killed, all due
to a lack of oxygen and carbon monoxide poisoning (afterdamp) in the
aftermath of the explosion. The death toll could have been much higher,
however, if it had occurred during the day shift instead of the night
shift: there would have been over 200 men in the mine instead of 42. The
mine was also forced to shut down for several months for repairs and then
a 7 month strike came along which closed the mine until November 1911. It
was not until 1912 that operations were back to normal.
The next two decades at the mine were ones of high production and good
profits. There were several major strikes during this period as the miners
became more organized and their unions became stronger. The dominant issue
in these strikes was wages, with the miners demanding increases, but there
were other disputes such as those over mining methods and over union
affiliation that led to work stoppages. There were major strikes in 1919,
1920, 1922, and 1924. Of these, the six month strike in 1924 was the most
important. It reduced the miner's wages to a level that remained virtually
unchanged until about 1939.
The late 1940's and 1950's were very difficult times for the mine. The
C.P.R.'s continuing conversion from coal to diesel was, by the late 1950's,
all but complete and thus the Bellevue mine's largest customer no longer
required coal. Attempts were made to find new markets for its coal
overseas and for steam power plants, but these were unsuccessful. All
efforts to persuade the government to give financial assistance failed and
due to a lack of orders, the mine was forced to shut down in January 1961.
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